Author: Adrine Hakobian

Annual festive events for children on the occasion of New Year and Holly Christmas have started today at the Presidential Palace. Today, the Presidential Palace at Baghramian 26 hosted 300 kids from secondary schools who demonstrated excellent learning results. On the eve of New Year, traditional events organized in the Presidential Palace will gather over 1200 children aging 6-12 from Yerevan and regions of the Republic.

Events for kids at Baghramian 26 will be held also in next two days, on December 23 and 24. Tomorrow, the Palace will host children and grandchildren of the servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces, members of Erkrapah volunteers union, of fallen and handicap freedom fighters, including those from the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, children of the RA Police and National Security employees. On December 24, children from a number of communities from border regions (Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor, Ararat, Tavush), as well as children from Syria who found refuge in Armenia, children with disabilities and laureates of Olympiads (Kangaroo and Bee) will be the guests at the Presidential Palace.

Liz Ohanesian

There’s a moment in “Conan in Armenia” where late-night host Conan O’Brien and his assistant Sona Movsesian catch a glimpse of Mt. Ararat against the horizon. They didn’t know if they would see the mountain, the legendary final stop for Noah’s ark, and when they do, it’s a solemn moment. Mt. Ararat is a powerful symbol for the Armenian people and, while one might be able to see it on a clear day, it is just out of reach for Armenians, as it stands across the Turkish border. Conan explains that Mt. Ararat “used to be part of Armenia, now it’s not.” Sona is silent as she stares into the distance.

The whole situation is complicated, but that’s the case for Armenia in general. The modern nation has only existed since the fall of the Soviet Union, but the history of Armenia is ancient. That Sona proudly identifies as Armenian, but has never visited the country before this trip is understandable. Like Sona, I’m of Armenian descent, but have never traveled to the country and call Los Angeles home. For those of us who share this heritage, Armenia is a destination, maybe not to live, but definitely to visit. It is a physical homeland for a people who were nearly wiped off the earth during the 1915 Genocide.

For reasons I’ll never fully understand, the country is not a destination for people who aren’t part of the diaspora; travel hosts like Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern don’t have Armenia episodes, but reality star Kim Kardashian does. That Conan O’Brien chose to take Sona to Armenia is a big deal for those of us are Armenian, something my own family discussed over a San Fernando Valley Thanksgiving table while eating turkey and pilaf. But it also made for great television that could appeal to anyone.

“Conan in Armenia” essentially tells two, intertwined stories. There’s the story of Conan, who is entering both a culture and a place that is foreign to him, and the story of Sona, who has grown up with the culture, but hasn’t been to the place of its origins. Much of the episode plays out like a buddy comedy—Conan goofs off, Sona plays it straight, but gets a few deadpan zingers in here and there. They go on a series of very short adventures. Conan takes Sona to a matchmaker to find an Armenian husband. The two try to work as shepherds. They meet up with Armenian fans who were originally from Syria, but relocated because of the war. They drink vodka and learn how to make the thin, flat bread called lavash.

Throughout the episode, we get a wonderful glimpse of Armenia and, primarily, its capital Yerevan. We see the Yerevan Day celebrations, check out Conan on the set of an Armenian soap opera, and hear a lot of the language. Conan interacts with people young and old who are more than happy to get in on the gags with him. But, it all goes far beyond jokes about how Conan doesn’t understand the language and is a silly dancer. While Conan seems to struggle with simply greeting people in Armenian at the beginning of the episode, later on, he seems to be settling in fine. As Conan and Sona smoke a hookah, Conan remarks, “shad merci,” a slang-y way of saying “thanks a lot.” The premise of the episode is to help get Sona in touch with her roots, but it’s clear that Conan has a lot of love for Armenia too.

Near the end of the episode, Conan and Sona visit the Armenian Genocide memorial. Conan briefly explains the Genocide, which happened a century ago, before the camera follows Sona through the memorial. Sona tears up as she shares the story of her grandparents and finds the name of her family’s home village carved in stone. This segment is crucial for contextualizing the trip. It explains why there is a diaspora, and why a trip to Armenia is something of a pilgrimage for ethnic Armenians across the globe.

In the end, “Conan in Armenia” is more than just comedy abroad. It’s a story of friendship and empathy set in a country that gets very little exposure on American television.

France’s far-right National Front (FN) has failed to win a single region in the second round of municipal elections.

The party was beaten into third place, despite leading in six of 13 regions in the first round of voting on 6 December.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right Republicans finished ahead of the ruling Socialists.

Acknowledging defeat, FN leader Marine Le Pen pledged to keep fighting.

And she blamed the outcome on the mainstream parties which had colluded to keep the FN from power, telling her supporters they had been “disenfranchised in the most indecent of ways by a campaign of lies and disinformation”.

Marine Le Pen stood as a regional presidential candidate in the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, while her niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen was the FN’s candidate in the race in Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, in the south.

After both led with more than 40% of the vote in the first round on 6 November, the Socialist candidates in those regions pulled out so their voters could support Republican candidates against the FN in the second round.

Marine Le Pen secured 42.2% of the vote in the second round in her region against the centre-right’s 57.8%.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen took 45.2%, compared with 54.8% for her Republican rival.

Armenians voted in a referendum Sunday on proposed Constitutional changes that would give more powers to the Prime Minister and Parliament at the expense of the President.

The polls opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m.

1,005,333 people or 39.17 percent of the eligible voters participated in the referendum on as of 17:00. The final data on voter turnout will be released at 9 p.m.

An artist has created a life-size chocolate sculpture of Russian President Vladimir Putin set to become the most interesting exhibit at the Festival of Chocolate fair in St. Petersburg on Saturday, CBS reports.

Sculptors gathered information from open sources about the weight and height of President Putin.

With the sculpture near completion on Thursday, the St. Petersburg-based sculptors had already used more than 70 kilograms of chocolate.

The creators expect their creation to be a become a Guinness record. It was originally commissioned by the festival to make a bust of the President, sculptors went one step further and made him life-size.

A representation of his dog, Connie, and a briefcase was also added.

After the festival, the sculpture will be not eaten or sold and will return to the St. Petersburg workshop where it was crafted.

Photos by Armine Gevorgyan/Public Radio of Armenia

 

Opposition groups in Armenia rally in capital Yerevan today against the proposed constitutional amendments.

Leader of the Heritage Party Raffi Hovhnnisyan offered opening remarks at the rally organized by New Armenia movement, which brings together representatives of different opposition groups.

The protests come ahead of the Constitutional Referendum scheduled for December 6.

The US Department of State has issued a statement, expressing regret over Azerbaijan’s prevention of OSCE ODHIR monitoring of its parliamentary elections. The statement reads:

We regret that the Government of Azerbaijan did not allow the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to field its necessary number of observers, and therefore ODIHR was not able to monitor the elections.  Without ODIHR participation, it is impossible for us to say that Azerbaijan has made progress on ODIHR’s previous election observation recommendations, which identified and sought to address limitations to fundamental freedoms.

We continue to have concerns about the restrictive political environment in Azerbaijan and urge the Government of Azerbaijan to respect the freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and independent voices including the media as part of its international commitments, and to work with the OSCE, including ODIHR, to this end.  We remain committed to working with the government and people of Azerbaijan in their effort to ensure a strong, stable, democratic, and prosperous future.

The  has published a paper which analyses the response of the European Union, Armenia and countries in the Middle East to the Syrian refugee crisis. The study shows that by basing its approach on solidarity Armenia has demonstrated it truly does embody European values.

Armenia has welcomed around 17 000 refugees since the start of the Syrian civil war. This makes it the third European country with the biggest number of displaced people from Syria.  Only Germany and Sweden have accepted more asylum seekers. Both countries rank amongst strongest economies in Europe whereas Armenia has a GDP per capita ten times lower than the European Union average.

However, Armenia is the first European country in terms of refugees welcomed per inhabitant: it hosts 6 Syrian refugees per 1000 inhabitants, more than Germany (1) or Sweden (4). Given the social and economic situation of Armenia the paper finds that immigration from Syria has demanded a much bigger effort from Armenia than from any other European country.

The sudden income of refugee has led to a lot of discussions and tensions within the European Union, with governments bargaining over refugee quotas. In contrast Armenian officials made it clear that the state should be ready to welcome refugees and that it should worktogether with international structures and different Armenian organizations to receive them.

Though the majority of the refugees from Syria are ethnic Armenians other minorities have also found refuge Armenia. One example is the Yazidis who face brutal persecution and ethnic cleansing at the hands of various terrorist groups, both in Syria and Iraq. Upon arriving in Armenia they have been granted an asylum status.

‘Everybody talks about the refugee crisis. Sadly, we do not hear enough about Armenia, which is really reminding the world what the meaning of European solidarity is.’ says Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa, EuFoA Director. ‘By publishing this report we want to bring this to the attention of people and show how Armenia truly is part of the European community of values.’

The paper is available on

Moscow urges the parties to the Karabakh conflict to refuse form application of force and demonstrate political will to reach a compromise, official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova has declared, RIA Novosti reports.

“Unfortunately, the renewal of political dialogue gets more complicated because of escalation of situation in the conflict zone, increased number of victims, including civilians,” she said, adding that “further escalation is simply inadmissible.”

“We call on the parties to refuse from the use of force and demonstrate political will necessary for reaching a compromise,” she said.

According to her, the issue of Karabakh conflict settlement was discussed in detail during the visits of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers to Moscow in April-May.

“The topic is on the agenda of Russian FM Sergey Lavrov’s contacts with foreign counterparts. We are working in that direction in close cooperation with France and the United States. The Minister recently held a meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the sidelines of the 70^th session of the UN General Assembly, during which the parties referred to practical issues of conflict settlement ahead of the forthcoming visit of the mediators this month,” Zakharoca said.

A multi-national inspection group of the Republic of Turkey is carrying out inspection in Armenia deom October 11 to 14 under the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, Press Service of the Armenian Ministry of Defense Reports.

The inspection aims to check the authenticity of information provided by the Republic of Armenia on the quantity of armaments, equipment and military staff restricted by the CFE Treaty, the scheme of the military units and plan of the buildings.